Explaining the Australian Occupations Ceiling for Skilled Migrants

Australia welcomes skilled migrants and recent media reports confirm the value of the educated, experienced and skilled migrant to the Australian economy. Yet in an effort to protect the employment opportunities of the country’s citizen Occupation Ceilings have been employed.

Essentially Occupation Ceilings translates to the maximum number of skilled migrants who will be allowed into the country in a specific career field on a skilled migrant visa.

In late 2013, the Australian Department of Immigration conducted an evaluation of occupational ceilings to assess how they have operated to date and to consider changes to ensure they are performing their intended function.

Based on feedback received on a review of these rules in 2014 state and territory nominated visas are no longer be subject to occupational ceiling limitations and the minimum ceiling for each occupational group will be 1000 invitations. This is great news for migrants who before 2014 were far more limited in their visa options.

The Australian Department of Immigration have also acknowledged that there are still high levels of interest from prospective skilled migrants in the following six occupations, and therefore pro rata arrangements for these occupational groups will continue:

Details of the cut-offs for these occupations will continue to be included in the regular invitation round reports states the Department.

Invitation to apply

But you need to be invited to apply for a visa in this category. An invitation is permission from the government that allows invitees to apply for a visa under the skilled migration programme for Australia.

Invitations are issued twice a month. The results of the invitation rounds are published on this webpage after every round.

An occupation ceiling will be applied to invitations to apply to migrate under the points based skilled visas of the general skilled migration programme. There will be a limit on how many invitations are issued in these subclasses for a particular occupation to ensure that the migration programme is not dominated by a small number of occupations.

Occupational ceilings do not apply to, State or Territory Nominated, Employer Sponsored or Business Innovation and Investment visa subclasses.

It is strongly suggested that applicants consult a professional migration consultant when considering applying for a visa under the skilled migrant visa category. A migration consultant will be able to share valuable information with you and guide you through an otherwise complicated process.